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The broken windows theory outlined below is exactly why I ask people to stay on top of new encampments of drunks and junkies as they appear in neighborhoods. Market Street west of Van Ness is a perfect example of an area that such people are trying to take over. That is why I call the police every time I pass a drunk passed out on the sidewalk or trying to set up a camp or just sitting getting drunk making rude comments to passersby. I hope everyone is doing this also.
And once again, I would like to say that I am tired of seeing newspaper articles and columns about the "homeless" problem being the result of insufficient affordable housing. On my way to work, five days a week, I pass probably 100 "homeless" people. Some of them are clearly mentally ill and need our help, some are elderly and need our help. But the majority of them, the MAJORITY, are apparently able-bodied men in their 30s and 40s who sit all day getting drunk and stoned. Are the "homeless" advocates saying that if 100,000 affordable units appeared in SF, these people who move right in? Of course not. Because it is their substance abuse that is the problem not insufficient housing, and most likely when they began to abuse, they had jobs, families, friends, and homes. Now that they have lost all of those things through their refusal to take responsibility for themselves, they expect us to take care of them. Time to ask ourselves just what exactly we owe people who say they don’t care about our concerns and they just want our money for booze and drugs and our parks to live in. "Homeless" advocates usually have the process backwards.
Name Withheld
- : 10.0
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September 14th, 2007 at 11:23 am
I agree. “Homeless” is a broad term that applies to the truly homeless who got that way because of physical or mental illness and who should probably be hospitalized, families who due to job loss or major incident - death in family, loss of breadwinner, etc. and the lazy louts to just want to live at the expense of someone - anyone else. Because not all homeless are equal, the solutions to their needs will differ. We need medical, mental or custodial care for the truly ill. We need services and support for the temporarily homeless so they can get back into society, and we need to drive out the lazy louts who want a free ride - they don’t deserve anything but a one way ticket out of town. I’m really tired of being asked to feel compassion for people who have simply learned to scam the system. Send them out of town and let some other “progressive” city support them.
September 15th, 2007 at 3:45 am
And most of the people who stand in the same place every day “selling” Street Sheets ARE scamming the system. Very few of these homeless people on the street are homeless beause they’re “unlucky”, most of them have made choices and given up. Some of them aren’t even homeless! They’re provided housing and go stand on the corner begging for money to get food. People who make an effort to improve themselves and their situation should be HELPED (not givena free ride) People who have become dependent on the system need to be dumped and bussed out of here somewhere else - see how compassionate other cities are.